bböp Posted June 15 Share Posted June 15 Oh, what a night…how’s that song go again? Okay, maybe “mid June back in ’24” isn’t quite as catchy as what we’re used to, but as Jeff kept remarking during the show, he couldn’t believe how nice the conditions had turned out for the first night of a two-night run at the new Salt Shed “fairgrounds.” And really, isn’t that everything when it comes to playing an outdoor concert during the summer months? As someone who has endured plenty of those, especially in humid climates, I can tell you that it pretty much is. The Salt Shed is, I guess, Chicago’s newest major venue — a reclaimed salt factory, hence the name, with both indoor and outdoor spaces for shows. The outdoor space, which debuted last year, is basically a long, relatively narrow concrete courtyard adjacent to the old factory building itself with a festival-type stage set up at one end and food and drink vendors at the other. On the building side, there’s a VIP balcony with a bar situated underneath. The outdoor space, anyway, definitely lends itself to being a place to hang out on a nice night and drink and eat —and, oh, maybe listen to some music. Kind of like a Chicago summer street festival, for what it’s worth. Whether or not that’s the ideal setting for a Wilco show, Jeff and Co. certainly made the most of the setting and mixed in a few summery nuggets into their usual setlist. That started almost from the jump with a rocking version of Can’t Stand It as the second song of the night (afterward even Jeff seemed to be a bit taken aback, either by how fun the song was to play or how it came off, or both, saying something to the effect of “that’s about as good as it’s gonna get.”) And a bit later came a mid-set surprise, of sorts, in the form of the back-to-back performances of What Light and Theologians. Before the former, Jeff once again took note of the absolutely perfect weather. “It’s so much better than I thought it was gonna be,” he said. “I was worried. Just a couple of days ago, it looked like it was gonna be…moist.” As a symbol of just how triumphant the mood was, Jeff even embellished the end of Theologians with the rare “big riff” ending that always gives that song an extra boost. One thing I did want to briefly mention before I forget is that it was interesting to see the band continuing to tinker ever so slightly with little musical things that the vast majority of people probably wouldn’t even notice, but when you’ve seen a lot of shows, you definitely do. For instance, on Impossible Germany, I noticed tonight that as Nels was winding down his solo, Jeff actually came over started playing in unison with him for a while before they both headed into the final stretch of the song. It’s something I noticed they started doing in Australia earlier this year and it kind of gives the song a subtly different feel during that stretch. On California Stars, the band has continued to expand this brief instrumental introduction that developed out of filling time waiting for Jeff to get his guitar during one show but that now gives the song a little air of quasi-exotica or something to it. In my opinion, at least. Speaking of California Stars, that oft-played chestnut actually wasn’t even on the printed setlist but got added. The venue apparently had a pretty strict 10 p.m. curfew, and the band got off stage just a couple of minutes before that, with Jeff saying they were going to pull the plug pretty soon and urging the crowd through one final rousing round of “ba ba bas” during Spiders (Kidsmoke) by saying that Milwaukee had done it better a couple of nights earlier. That challenge apparently got enough people going to bring the song — and the show — to satisfactory close. “We’re getting near the end, everybody,” Jeff said toward the end of the main set, drawing the expected moans and groans from the audience. “I just mean in general. Let’s talk about it later.” There weren’t really any other noteworthy visits to Banter Corner, outside of continuing declarations of surprise at the utter pleasantness of the evening’s climes. I suppose that became the theme of the night — things turning out way better than expected. Not even the slightly awkward call out by Jeff before Evicted on a guy who apparently asked a bunch of women at the front row to flash him as he took a photo of them (or something?) could ruin the delightful vibe of the evening. It'll be interesting to see what changes are made to the set tonight despite Jeff’s usual joke after his unscientific poll of how many people were also coming to tomorrow night’s show and how the band wouldn’t have to change the setlist at all. For one, this was the second straight show without a single Being There song played and I have a hard time imagining we won’t at least get a Misunderstood or something tonight. And I still find it kind of weird that Meant To Be, the song off Cousin that the band made a video for and significantly promoted, hasn’t been played by the full band since last October. Just a couple of suggestions… Here was the complete setlist, as played, for Night 1 (as mentioned, California Stars wasn’t on the printed setlist, but was added as the penultimate song of the show): Infinite Surprise Can’t Stand It Handshake Drugs At Least That’s What You Said I Am My Mother Cruel Country I Am Trying To Break Your Heart Levee What Light Theologians Cousin Bird Without A Tail/Base of My Skull Hummingbird Evicted Box Full Of Letters I’m Always In Love Jesus, etc. Impossible Germany Dawned On Me The Late Greats A Shot In The Arm ------------------------------------- Via Chicago> California Stars Spiders (Kidsmoke) 6 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Madcap Posted June 15 Share Posted June 15 Awesome show, really makes me wish I was going tonight. I wondered if any deep cuts would pop up in advance of the Friday night Solid Sound set and I’d say Can’t Stand It and What Light qualify! 2 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bböp Posted June 15 Author Share Posted June 15 15 minutes ago, Madcap said: Awesome show, really makes me wish I was going tonight. I wondered if any deep cuts would pop up in advance of the Friday night Solid Sound set and I’d say Can’t Stand It and What Light qualify! I think people are going to be disappointed if they set their expectations for that "Deep Cuts" set too high. Set expectations low and be pleasantly surprised would be my advice! I certainly hope there will be some truly deep cuts, but I'm kind of starting to think we're going to mostly get what would be called album tracks. Stuff from albums that hasn't been played very often live, rather than crazy non-album tracks or whatnot. Just my suspicion. Is Kicking Television a deep cut? That one seems pretty likely to me. But I'm still holding out hope for Let's Not Get Carried Away! 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Chez Posted June 15 Share Posted June 15 It was a great night. "Shot in the Arm" was a highlight for me (it always is) and I was surprised we didn't get any of the "Being There" classics (maybe tonight?), but - as bbop noted - the band sounded fantastic on several extended noisy, work-outs. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Albert Tatlock Posted June 15 Share Posted June 15 Ta. For me it was a pleasant evening half-watching the Jocks getting spanked by the Jerries. Just can’t get enough Karma for Joe Jordan’s hand ball, that’s what I say. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
DiamondClaw Posted June 15 Share Posted June 15 Amazing night top to bottom! Really wish I could make it back tonight. It was a rocking setlist, and the band was hitting on all cylinders. "Can't Stand It" and "Levee" were very pleasant surprises to me! And it can't be overstated how mind-blowing "Bird Without a Tail" is. Oh, and I was standing right next to the guy Jeff jokingly accused of asking women to flash him for a photo, and I can vouch that the guy definitely did not say that! 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nalafej Posted June 15 Share Posted June 15 The sound guys really shouldn't turn down Nels just because he wore old man shoes. We really need him higher in the mix tonight. Rooting for the Being There Rock Song Block tonight... 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bböp Posted June 15 Author Share Posted June 15 14 minutes ago, nalafej said: Rooting for the Being There Rock Song Block tonight... You need to come up front and will it into existence and stop being such an old man yourself! 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Madcap Posted June 15 Share Posted June 15 2 hours ago, bböp said: I think people are going to be disappointed if they set their expectations for that "Deep Cuts" set too high. Set expectations low and be pleasantly surprised would be my advice! I certainly hope there will be some truly deep cuts, but I'm kind of starting to think we're going to mostly get what would be called album tracks. Stuff from albums that hasn't been played very often live, rather than crazy non-album tracks or whatnot. Just my suspicion. Is Kicking Television a deep cut? That one seems pretty likely to me. But I'm still holding out hope for Let's Not Get Carried Away! Oh for sure. I'm not expecting stuff like Unlikely Japan or things like that. Just play Casino Queen! 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bböp Posted June 15 Author Share Posted June 15 1 minute ago, Madcap said: Oh for sure. I'm not expecting stuff like Unlikely Japan or things like that. Just play Casino Queen! Ha, I misread your earlier post. I thought you said Can’t Stand It and What Light don’t qualify as deep cuts (and, well, I kind of snobbishly think they’re just mid-deep). Is Casino Queen deep-cut worthy? Umm….🤔 (Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like to hear it, but really, a deep cut? That’s the beauty of the definition that set, though. It means different things to everybody!) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nalafej Posted June 15 Share Posted June 15 3 hours ago, bböp said: You need to come up front and will it into existence and stop being such an old man yourself! Rail riding is unfortunately not in the cards tonight. Looking forward to the show though! Bring on Bull Black Nova, I Must Be High, Sunken Treasure and You Are My Face! 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Brian F. Posted June 16 Share Posted June 16 I'm hoping for mostly "album tracks" for the Deep Cuts set but, for what it's worth, the songs Jeff has been teasing on his Substack have been a mix of album tracks and non-album tracks. (I know these aren't necessarily the songs the band will end up playing in North Adams, but they are at least indicative of what Jeff has been practicing, and they have included "Message from Mid-Bar," "When the Roses Bloom Again" and "Bob Dylan's 49th Beard," among others.) Regarding the disappearance of "Meant to Be," it puts me in mind of the fact that "You Never Know" is the only Wilco song ever to hit number one on any Billboard chart, and yet they treat it like a red-headed stepchild (or Golden Smog's "Red-Headed Stepchild"). It has been played ten times since 2010. * And now I see that they dusted off "Meant to Be" tonight in Chicago. 1 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
SecureTheShed Posted June 16 Share Posted June 16 Hey, all! (Security dude who high fives and works the Salt Shed barricade crowd) Friday: Friday night’s Wilco show was by far our best show of the young Salt Shed outdoor season! Solid sold out set list by Tweedy and Co. We enforce a hard core 10pm sound curfew (with HEAVY fines) due to City regs. In true home town, crowd pleasing charm, Sir Tweedy stretched 3 off-set list encores to 9:57pm! (We would Knight him such a thing existed!) Saturday: hot nite, heavy set list! “Mushroom O’ Dark Thirty,” as we calmly call it, landed early w a couple on the asphalt sprawlers early! Although Saturdays performance lacked some of the extras reviewed, it’s hard for me to deny it was any LESS memorable. Right? FYI: The Salt Shed is THE HOTTEST 5000 seat venue right now!!!! We’re STILL signing acts who genuinely wanna play the Shed! Artists and their tour managers are burning us up, to the point OTHER venues are jelly! Check out our, ever growing, Palooza after hour line up. Headliners will play our indoor venue, (MUCH better sound mix) after 11pm w a libationary liquor license to 4am Thx to ALL who made Wilco and Chicago amazing!!! -SecureTheShed 2 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.